Despite Johnson’s Pleas, Trump Says Senators Can Make ‘Significant’ Changes to His ‘Big Beautiful Bill’

Despite Speaker Johnson’s pleas to senators to not change the text of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, President Trump says he is fine with the Senate making “significant” changes to the bill. The House version of the legislation seems dead on arrival on the other side of the Capitol, with conservatives and moderates alike raising alarms. Speaking to reporters before departing Palm Beach for Washington on Sunday, Mr. Trump said the process will play itself out, and that Mr. Johnson and Senator Thune had been doing a “fantastic” job working together. “I want the Senate and the senators to … make the changes they want, and we’ll go back to the House and we’ll see if we can get them,” the president said. “In some cases, those changes, maybe, are something I’d agree with.”“I think the Senate is gonna get there,” he added. “I think they’re gonna have changes. Some will be minor and some will be, you know, fairly significant.”Mr. Johnson joined Republican senators at their weekly lunch just hours before the House passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act early Thursday morning. At that meeting, he warned senators to their faces that any changes they make to the bill — which passed the lower chamber by only one vote — threatens to blow up the entire process. Mr. Trump sounded more optimistic, however, saying that Messrs. Johnson and Thune will continue working together constantly. “We’ve been working with the House all the way up [until now]. They’ve been working together,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “John Thune and Mike Johnson have done a fantastic job. They’ve been working together. … So, hopefully that’ll be fine.”The speaker went public with his demand that the Senate not “meddle” in the House’s process just hours before Mr. Trump said that he would support senators making some “significant” changes to the bill. “I met with the Senate Republicans, all my colleagues over there last week … and I encouraged them, you know, to do their work, of course, as we all anticipate, but to make as few modifications to this package as possible,” Mr. Johnson said Sunday morning.“We’ve gotta pass it one more time to ratify their changes in the House, and I have a very delicate balance here — very delicate equilibrium,” the speaker added, referring to his slim majority. “It’s best not to meddle with it too much.”Senators, however, seem unbothered by the speaker’s demands. A coterie of debt hawks say the bill — which is now projected to increase the deficit by as much as $2.5 trillion over the next decade — is unacceptable. Senator Johnson did not hide his frustrations this past week, saying on Sunday that America is “mortgaging” future generations’ prosperity. Mr. Trump “may not be worried about that. I’m extremely worried about that,” Mr. Johnson said, clarifying that he is a strong “no” on the legislation as currently written. “This is our only chance to reset [the budget] to a reasonable level of pre-pandemic spending. … The spending that we would eliminate, people wouldn’t even notice.”Senator Paul also said Sunday that he will not vote yes on any bill that includes a multitrillion-dollar increase in America’s debt limit.

Despite Johnson’s Pleas, Trump Says Senators Can Make ‘Significant’ Changes to His ‘Big Beautiful Bill’

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